purpose

I think we sometimes get so busy trying to create heaven on earth we forget to build God’s Kingdom on earth. There is a difference between building a life full of comfort, security, and excess and building the Kingdom of God. When I look around my country and see the lives of Christians looking no different from those who have rejected Jesus, I can’t help but feel we’ve misunderstood the point.

Building God’s Kingdom has nothing to do with Kingdom building in the traditional sense. We build the Kingdom of God by sacrificing the very things we would use to build our own kingdoms. When you look at your own life, does the evidence point to building the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of you?

I recently had the epiphany that personal development is useless. As a professed adherent to constant personal development in my own life, the revelation took me by surprise. I am always looking for ways to better myself, do things more effectively, and am consistently refining my habits and disciplines. But ultimately, personal development is useless because it starts with myself. I am a terribly flawed human being. We all are.

Nothing that comes from us will ever improve ourselves in a significant way. We are building on a flawed foundation (our flawed selves). While personal development may be useless, God-development is where the true answers are found. If we start with perfection, we have something worth building upon.

I was sickened by the results of a recent poll taken by Lifeway research concerning prosperity and God. Lifeway polled Americans with evangelical beliefs who attended Protestant churches at least once each month. The results were startling: 75% believe God wants them to prosper financially; 41 % said their churches teach the more money they give, the more they will be blessed; and 26% agreed they had to do something for God in order to receive material blessings from Him.

It made me wonder what Bible these people and churches are using? It sadly confirmed the common suspicion that people aren’t even reading their Bible’s. None of the above can be found in Scripture. Yet this is what many churches are teaching today, and worse, it’s what people are believing.

How big is your God? Do you believe He can cure any sickness, heal any wound, solve any problem, and handle any situation? Do you believe that He can? Never forget the God who lives inside You, the God who sacrificed His Son for you, the One who is always acting for you is the same God who created everything in the world around you.

He is the same God who sustains the universe moment by moment, who feeds the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. He is the One who provides for His creation, sustains its life, and blesses it for His glory. This is a God who knows no impossibility. He is our rock, our refuge, and our provider. Do you see God this way, or is He somehow smaller to you?

The way many of us live relegates God to an afterthought. After we’ve done everything we want to do, spend money on things we want to buy, and talk to the people with whom we want to speak, then we are ready to communicate with God. We owe God the firstfruits of all our offerings (Nehemiah 10:35-37). This implies we also owe Him a tithe on our time. He should get the best of our time, not the leftovers.

To me, this means beginning each day with God. To not begin the day with God is a recipe for disaster. I see how He rejected Cain’s offering but accepted Abel’s (Genesis 4:3-5). I don’t want to insult God with the time I give to Him. It needs to be my very best, and it needs to be the first I have to offer.